There have been plenty of fights in joint practices around the NFL over the past few weeks, but don't expect to see any when the New England Patriots get together with the Philadelphia Eagles.
The two teams will be practicing together on Tuesday and the reason you likely won't see any fights is because new Patriots coach Jerod Mayo has implemented a team-wide rule to cut down on any potential scuffles.
"My message to the players: if you get in a fight out here, if you're a starter, you're going to play the whole preseason game," Mayo said. "If you're not a starter, you won't play at all. That's kind of my mindset with that."
That's a solid rule. Most starters don't want to play an entire preseason game, but that's exactly what will happen if they pick a fight in practice. On the other hand, if you're not a starter, getting benched for an entire preseason game is a pretty painful punishment because you need to get as much playing time as possible in each game so that you can prove that you deserve to make the roster.
Mayo is willing to punish his players because a punishment is exactly what would happen if they got in a fight in a real game.
"Look, you don't fight in a real game," Mayo said. "If you fight in a real game, you get fined; you get kicked out. It's the same thing here."
Mayo spent eight seasons as a Patriots player before becoming the head coach and he actually liked joint practices while he was playing, so you can bet that New England will keep having them.
"It really breaks up the monotony of camp," Mayo said of joint practices. "It really helps you build that camaraderie amongst the group because out here, when you're going against each other, it gets a little stale sometimes. It's always good to go against another team."
The Patriots and Eagles will practice together on Tuesday and then face each other at Gillette Stadium on Thursday in Week 2 of the preseason.
